1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector in which plural male sub-connectors are mounted to a holding member so as to be connected collectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 8-175161 is constituted so that plural male sub-connectors are mounted into a holding member.
The holding member is formed in a rectangular box shape, and the male sub-connectors are inserted into the holding member from its backward portion so as to be mounted. The male sub-connectors are arranged in two files in the vertical direction and in three ranks in the horizontal direction. Namely, the six male sub-connectors are mounted into the holding member. Moreover, tapered mating terminal insertion openings, into which mating terminals are inserted, are formed on a front surface of the holding member so as to form lines correspondingly to the male sub-connectors. This holding member is formed by injecting resin into a cavity of a metal mold.
The male sub-connector has a rectangular box-shaped connector housing whose back portion is opened. Two upper and lower terminal housing chambers for housing terminals are formed in the connector housing, and the terminals are inserted respectively into the terminal housing chambers from the back portion of the connector housing with the terminals being connected with electric wires. Terminal insertion openings, which are interconnected with the terminal insertion openings of the holding member, are formed on the front surface of the connector housing.
The terminals are formed by interconnecting caulking sections for caulking and fixing insulating coating of the electric wires, connection sections to be connected with conductors of the electric wires and contact sections which are electrically connected by contacting with mating terminals. The terminals are inserted into the terminal housing chambers of the male sub-connector from the contact sections. The contact sections have a tubular shape, and the mating terminals are inserted from openings at their points thereinto. For this reason, the openings are interconnected with the mating terminal insertion openings of the male sub-connectors and the mating terminal insertion openings of the holding member. Moreover, contact pieces, which elastically contact with the mating terminals inserted from the openings, are provided in the contact sections.
Such a connector is assembled so that the male sub-connectors through which the terminals were inserted are inserted into the holding member, and the connector in this assembled state is fitted into a mating connector. As a result, mating terminals of the mating connector are inserted through the mating terminal insertion openings and of the holding member and the male sub-connectors. The mating terminals are inserted from the openings of the terminals into the contact sections so as to contact with the contact pieces in the contact sections, and as a result, the terminals are connected with each other.
In the aforementioned connector, since the holding member which was injection-molded is rapped from a metal mold, it is necessary to provide a trimming taper on the inner surface of the holding member. Further, as the holding member becomes longer towards an insertion direction of the male sub-connector, namely, its depth becomes larger, and a taper angle .theta. of the trimming taper should be set to a larger value.
However, when the trimming taper angle .theta. becomes larger, the point of the male sub-connector is separated from the inner surface of the holding member. For this reason, the male sub-connector becomes unstable while in the holding member. Due to the unstable male sub-connector, the terminals in the male sub-connector are shifted from the holding member. As a result, since the wall of the terminals come into the mating terminal insertion openings of the holding member, the mating terminals to be inserted from the mating terminal insertion openings bump into the points of the walls in the terminals. For this reason, proper contact with the mating terminals cannot be obtained, namely, there arises a problem of improper contact.